


Under the Mistletoe

by eric_idle_rules



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 10:46:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5453858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eric_idle_rules/pseuds/eric_idle_rules
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is for my Secret Santa prompt: Both pretending to be in a fake relationship for Christmas to appease Person A’s family. Everything goes swimmingly until a relative hangs a mistletoe over them and the whole room begins to chant “KISS!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shaz_27](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaz_27/gifts).



> Hope you enjoy!

Each night when Roman’s mother calls, it’s the same thing. “How was your day?” followed by “are your classes going well?” ending with “have you found anyone yet?” His answers are always the same. “Good,” followed by “yeah,” ending with “Not yet, Mom.”

And now it’s coming up to their winter break, and all Roman’s mother does at the tail end of their phone calls is ask if he’s starting seeing anyone. He still always tells her no. But she continually insists that he really should try and find a nice girl, or guy. You can even bring them to the Christmas party, she adds. 

The next day, Roman asks his friend Seth to go get breakfast at the dining hall with him, and he agrees. “This is probably the only time you’ll see me today. I have a shitload of studying to do,” Roman tells him as they walk together into the building.

“Same. My first final is at 8 tomorrow.”

Roman scrunches up his nose at the thought of an 8am final. “Gross. Mine starts at 10:30. Gives me a little extra time to cram in the morning, at least.”

The two get in the breakfast line, eyeing what the options are that morning. “Lucky,” Seth grumbles as he scoops some egg onto his plate.

When their plates are full, they find a table off in the back corner of the dining hall and sit. “You won’t believe the conversation I had with my mom last night.” Seth gives him a little nod to go on, his mouth full of bacon. “This time when I told her I wasn’t seeing anyone, she said I should find a nice girl, or guy, and bring them to the Christmas party we have every year.”

“Why’s she that desperate about finding you a girlfriend? Or boyfriend,” he adds.

“I think she just wants grandkids?” Roman replies. “Both sides of my family are huge. She comes from a big family, my dad comes from a big family… she married young, I think she wants me to want that, too. And then, ya know, make her grandkids. Or, I dunno, adopt?”

“But is that what you want?”

“I at least want to graduate college and find a job first.”

After setting down his cup of apple juice, Seth says, “Well, what if I go?”

“What?”

“I mean, I’ve met your family before, they seem like a good bunch of people. What if I go and pretend to be your boyfriend? You stop getting harassed, and I get some of your mom’s cooking. I think it’s a win win all around.”

“I dunno, man. This could backfire in so many ways. What do I tell them when we ‘break up?’” he asks around air quotes.

“Wait until after we graduate. Tell them that we have to go our separate ways and we just weren’t meant to be.” Seth shrugs, thinking that everything should be smooth sailing. “Besides, I live a couple hours away, it’s a perfect way to fall out of touch with someone once school’s over.”

“Fine. We’ll do it. Tonight I’ll tell my mom that I’ve actually been seeing someone this whole time. She’ll tell me that she knew it all along. But then, hopefully, she’ll stop fucking hounding me.”

When Roman and his mom talk on the phone that night, that’s exactly what happens. She squeals into the phone, excited over the fact that her son has a boyfriend. She makes sure to tell Roman to tell Seth their address and what time he should be over for the party.

~~~

“No, that’s a terrible idea,” Roman’s roommate Dean tells him as he flips through the channels on the one TV in the room.

“Why? It’s for one day. He goes to the party, we act all couply, then I tell her we broke up just before graduation. That’s it.”

“And it’s still a terrible idea. Do you guys have your stories straight? How long have you been together? When was your first kiss? When was your first time together? Don’t look at me like that, there’s gonna be some drunk, nosey aunt at the party who wants to know.” He swings his legs down to hang over the edge of the bed, sitting up now to look right at Roman. “You’re gonna get caught.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Well, when did you start dating?” Dean asks.

Roman gives him a blank look and stutters a bit. “Exactly. You need to be able to tell them who, what, when, where, why and how right off the top of your head. Maybe get a bit flustered when you think about when you asked him out. Or did he ask you out?”

“Oh. I, uh, I guess I see where you’re coming from.”

With his point proven, Dean goes back to lounging against his pillows. “Just get your shit together if you actually go through with it.”

~~~

They do actually go through with it. That night, Roman called his mother, and when she asked her usual questions, he told her that he had indeed met someone and that they would be attending the party.

And now that it’s Christmas, Roman’s waiting for Seth to make his arrival. They spoke on the phone the night before, one last run through of all their stories, just to make sure all the details match up. 

He sees Seth’s car park on the road and watches as he heads up the driveway. He greets Seth with a hug as he opens the door for him, and whispers, “I hope this works.” When they part, Roman begins making the rounds. “Mom, you remember Seth, right?”

“Of course I do,” she says, smiling at the pair of them. “It’s so nice to see you again. And you make my boy so happy. Look how he just lights up around you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Reigns.”

Roman just smiles at her before ushering Seth away from her and into their more open living space. “You know there’s a lot more to come, right? I mean… a lot more. You still ok with everything?”

“Of course. It _was_ my idea,” he reminds Roman. “But, uh, just how many more are we talking?”

“Well. My mom invites all her cousins and siblings, and my dad does the same?”

~~~

Seth feels as though he’s been asked the same question a hundred times over. And, honestly, he’s probably not exaggerating. But he and Roman have had the same answers every time. Everything’s perfect.

“How come I didn’t know about this, man?” one of Roman’s twin cousins asks. Seth still isn’t sure who’s who. 

“I told you, Jey, I was trying to keep it on the downlow,” Roman replies. 

Jey, Seth tries to remember, is the one wearing the red sweater with Rudolph and his fellow reindeer landing on a rooftop. “You don’t keep secrets from me, uce. Remember after Dani? Shit, her panties weren’t even back on and you were calling us up telling us you finally lost it.”

Roman’s shaking his head, pointing to Seth. “Dani, huh?” Seth turns his head towards Roman and raises an eyebrow, smirking slightly. 

“See what you started, man?” He gives Seth an apologetic smile. As apologetic as can be considering Seth has head the whole story.

“Well, it’s not like you to keep secrets from us,” Jimmy chimes in. “Why wouldn’t you tell us?”

“Honestly, I just didn’t want it getting back to my mom I was seeing someone. You know how she is and I know you two don’t know how to keep your mouths shut.”

“Hey!” the twins shout at the same time.

“Don’t act like it’s not true.”

They both shrug at that, knowing it is true. “When did you guys finally get together, then?”

“About two months ago,” Roman answers with the same answer he’s told everyone else. “We’ve been friends since freshman year, but this year we just got closer and, well,” Roman reaches out and places his hand on Seth’s knee for added effect, “this happened.”

“So when’d you two finally, ya know, do the do?” Jimmy asks.

Roman makes a mental note to tell Dean that it wasn’t a drunk aunt, but a just as nosey, slightly tipsy cousin, who asked first. “About two months ago.”

“No shit man,” Jey says with a face splitting grin.

“’Bout time you got yourself back out there. You’re too good lookin’ to be single,” Jimmy adds. 

“Thanks?” Roman replies, eyebrow quirked. 

The party goes on, with loads of food and presents overflowing the Reigns’ front room. All the younger cousins tear open their gifts from aunts and uncles, the wrapping paper alone filling up three trash bags.

Once presents are all opened and the kids have shouted thank you to everyone in view, people scatter some more, going back to the dessert table and eggnog. 

“How’s it going so far?” Roman asks. “Overwhelmed yet?”

“You weren’t kidding when you said there were a lot more people expected to arrive,” Seth says. “How do you even fit this many people in your house?”

“My dad and, well, some other family members built it. They, uh, took the size of extended family into account.”

“Gotcha. It must be nice, though, having this much family. It seems like you’re all really close.”

“Yeah, we are.” Roman smiles at him. “Me and the twins, we did everything together growing up. Honestly, it’s even kinda weird not going to the same college as them.”

“Hey man.” Roman turns his head and sees his older cousin Dwayne standing right next to him, hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, how’s it goin’?” Roman asks.

“Good, man, real good. This the new boyfriend I’ve heard so many stories about?” he asks, giving him a little smirk.

“Yeah, this is Seth. Seth, this is my cousin Dwayne.”

During the introduction, Jimmy manages to sneak up behind the pair and hold a sprig of mistletoe over their heads. 

Dwayne waggles his eyebrows at Roman and Seth, eyes looking upwards. Both Seth and Roman follow and see the mistletoe above their heads. “Oh no,” Roman mutters. Dean had warned him about this when they talked about this being a bad idea, but so far things had been smooth sailing. 

“What are you two lovebirds waiting for?” Jey asks.

Jimmy shakes the mistletoe around, grinning. “You know what you gotta do. Kiss, kiss, kiss!” he starts chanting, a few of the other family members around them doing the same. 

Roman turns to face Seth, trying to tell him with his eyes that he really has no idea what to do. They stare at each other for a few brief moments before Seth takes the initiative. He grabs Roman by the back of his head and pulls the taller man down to him. It only lasts a few seconds, but it’s enough to leave both of their heads spinning. When the two make eye contact again, Roman tries to tell Seth that they’re going to have to talk about this later.

“Happy now?” Roman asks his cousin.

“You have no idea how long he’s been waiting to do that to you two,” their cousin Tamina says. “He’s been chasing after me and my boyfriend for the past hour.”

“He kept holding it over my head, too,” Jimmy’s fiancée Naomi tells him with a roll of her eyes. “He’s just being stupid.”

Jimmy holds the mistletoe over his and Naomi’s heads again and smirks. 

“You’re such an idiot,” Roman says, gently pushing at Jimmy’s shoulder. He looks back to Seth and jerks his head for him to follow. Once they’re away from most of the crowd, having snuck upstairs to Roman’s room, they both take a seat on the edge of the bed. “About the kiss…”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Seth starts. “I’m so sorry. I know we didn’t talk about that, or anything. I didn’t mean to cross the line, especially with your whole family watching like that.”

“It’s ok. Dean said this idea would never work.”

Seth bumps his shoulder. “They ate it up, though, didn’t they? They all still think we’re together.” He can feel his face heating up just thinking about that kiss. Their first kiss. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just… I wasn’t expecting it.” Roman can see the blush on Seth’s face, decides to tease him a little. “You like it?”

“What?! Did I- what? Roman, man, it was nothing, right? It was just a kiss.”

“You can’t even look at me when you say it.” Roman lifts a hand to Seth’s chin and tilts his face up to look at him. “You did like it, didn’t you?”

“I’ve kinda wanted to do it for a while,” he admits. “I just never said anything because, I mean, I didn’t want to ruin anything.”

Roman smiles at him and slowly drops his head, their lips meeting again for a second time that day. His tongue is just brushing over Seth’s lips when they’re very rudely interrupted. 

“Sneak up here for a quick makeout session and you can’t even close the damn door?!” comes Jimmy’s voice from the doorframe. 

“I knew they’d be up here,” Jey says. “Look what you started, got these two horndogs all over each other.”

“Can you two please just leave?” Roman asks.

“That’s what we came up here for. To let you know a bunch of us are headed out.”

“Feels like you just got here, man,” Roman says, standing up, heading over to give his cousins hugs. 

“Until next year, right?”

“The hell you talkin’ about man, I’m going to your place next week for New Years.” 

“You bringing the boyfriend?” Jey asks.

Roman’s mouth opens and closes a few times before he turns his head back to Seth. “I, uh, honestly, didn’t even think about it. He might have plans already.”

“I don’t have plans,” Seth tells him, getting up to join him.

“You’re sure? I mean, you just spent Christmas away from your family.”

“It’s ok, we celebrated last night, anyway.” Seth grins. “And I never do anything on New Years besides watch the ball drop. Maybe this year I can at least get a New Years kiss out of it.”

Roman smiles down at him, nodding. “Yeah. I like the sound of that.”


End file.
